Tag Archives: Rotary

How a Rotary Engine Works and the Mazda 787B at Le Mans

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I promise to make a post about the RX-8 I bought for the EV conversion soon. Until then the quick and dirty details are that I towed it home and it runs perfectly, so I’ve been driving it around and enjoying my first rotary powered car. It drives absolutely amazing which has piqued my interest in rotaries in general. This video has been the best explanation of how one works that I’ve found on YouTube:

 

When you’re talking rotaries, it doesn’t get much better than the Mazda 787B. It has a 4 rotor engine with variable length intakes mounted midship. The 787B was the first and still the only Japanese car to win the 24 hours of Le Mans. This video was taken  at last year’s 24 hours of Le Mans to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the victory. Mazda got one of the original drivers to take the 787B around a full lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe.


Source: YouTube users max27890 and rittboy8u

RX-7 vs. RX-8 Tsukuba Battle – Best Motoring

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The Best Motoring crew rounded up what looks to be all of the rotary engine tuners in Japan for a 5 lap battle around Tsukuba. What’s interesting is that RX-7’s took the top place finishes, but RX-8’s set the fastest lap times. The begs the question of whether or not the RX-8 will establish a reputation for racing as legendary as the FD RX-7. The RX-8 seems to have better suspension design, but the RX-7 is smaller and lighter. It definitely makes for exciting battles like this one. Now that I’m an RX-8 owner (more details to follow), I can understand why rotor heads are so fanatical about these cars.


Source: YouTube user ZzetZzetGT

Battles at 10,000 rpm – Best Motoring

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The Best Motoring crew sets out to find the ultimate naturally aspirated car the only way they know how: a track battle. These guys do car reviews similar to shows like Top Gear, but the big difference is they like to interact with aftermarket tuners such as Spoon, J’s Racing and Powerhouse Amuse. They do a lot of wheel to wheel track racing and touge road racing to compare cars and discuss tuning philosophies. For this particular comparison, they try to find the best of tuned naturally aspirated cars. They talk about the benefits of NA tuning versus turbochargers and then they see whose car is fastest around Tsukuba. The lineup runs from a B18 CRX to a couple of NSX’s, a 350Z and 20b 3-rotor FD RX-7 by RE Amemiya.


Source: GT Channel on YouTube

Drifting the RX-8

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The guys at Best Motoring did an entire feature on the RX-8 a little bit after it came out. This excerpt is them doing a drift evaluation on the chassis ending with a test drive of an RX-8 that competes in the D1 Drift Championship. At the end of the video, they discuss the possibility of a turbocharged RX-7 making a return. That would have been the 2 door version of the RX-8 with a factory turbocharged engine. Unfortunately engine problems and weak sales of the RX-8 ended that idea. It was rumored that Mazda was going to try and apply its new high compression Sky Active philosophies to a new, larger displacement engine, but I think they gave up on that as well. As it sits now, it looks like the rotary engine won’t be able to overcome its reliability and fuel efficiency shortcomings to make a return to the market. At least Mazda is still making sporty cars and continues a massive grassroots motorsports support program.


Source: GT Channel